Albert Einstein was wrong!

[tieman55]

Einstein was wrong!

Albert Einstein defined insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I strongly disagree with his definition. Albert Einstein should have stuck to math and physic's and stayed away from philosophy.


Below is a cut and paste from my book Killing Abel's post script. Where I make the point that Einstein was wrong about his definition of insanity.

"My Wish

I wish that people would look back before they react. Ignoring history in the pursuit of a particular course of action that has been repeatedly seen to have failed in the past is the essence of arrogance. Albert Einstein defined insanity as, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I strongly disagree with his definition. It is not insanity. It is vanity. It is human nature. Indeed it is our own arrogance that leads us to believe that we will succeed where people for generations before us have failed, and it is our vanity and arrogance that lead us to believe that we are far more talented or that our ideas must be far superior to those of whose shoulder we stand upon.

It is arrogance to try yet again, and guilt soon follows to justify the predictable failure with false altruism. “At least we tried,” we say, as the ones we “helped” are punished further by our good intentions.

We all stand on our fathers’ shoulders, and we are obligated by where we stand―upon the billions who have preceded us―to simply look to our fathers and to accept their guidance. We might avoid many mistakes if we would only look to what has come before, look at our place in history, make decisions based on what is known, and then give our ancestors the credit due them―good and bad―for the history they gave us. If we would only look back and then think anew, the world would be a much better place.

What is the opposite of arrogance and vanity? That is humility. All we need to do is to humble ourselves against the background of history, placing ourselves justly, and then, with humility, look forward and reason anew. Wow, the world would be a much better place if just a few of us were to bend a knee before we act and humbly look back to those who tried before us. That we may begin to do so is my wish."

 

[Gary K]

I would disagree with you as. Repeating self-destructive behavior is not vanity. It is insanity. Why? Because destroying yourself over trifles such drugs, sex, alcohol, etc... is not sane behavior.

It is not insane to work towards a goal and not stop at the first lack of success, but that is not what the quote, which Einstein may or may not have actually said, is referring to. One is never failing if one is improving and moving towards an ultimate goal. Such behavior can never be considered failure. In baseball a person considered very successful fails 7 out of 10 times when hitting. Edison worked for decades at creating the light bulb. It took him thousands of experiments before he reached his ultimate success. To think that anyone, especially someone as bright as Einstein, would be referring to this type of behavior with the the saying :"insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again and expecting different results" is to me rather strange. Einstein himself worked for years on some of his theories before he perfected them so with your logic Einstein would have considered his own behavior insane....

 

[tieman55]

Each time Edison tried a new way to achieve his goal, he without fail looked at what had not worked, Edison never tried the exact same thing over and over again. Edison and all wise people look back at what has failed. But the vain among us will try the same thing that others have tried thinking they are a better person and will succeed because of their good intentions.

Having said all that, I am not really talking about inventions, I am talking about human events. A very famous Person said, paraphrasing . . . the poor will always be among us . . . That Person who billions of people believe in is ignored as trillions are spent trying to abolish that truth to assuage their misguided guilt.

 

[Gary K]

Each time Edison tried a new way to achieve his goal, he without fail looked at what had not worked, Edison never tried the exact same thing over and over again. Edison and all wise people look back at what has failed. But the vain among us will try the same thing that others have tried thinking they are a better person and will succeed because of their good intentions.

Having said all that, I am not really talking about inventions, I am talking about human events. A very famous Person said, paraphrasing . . . the poor will always be among us . . . That Person who billions of people believe in is ignored as trillions are spent trying to abolish that truth to assuage their misguided guilt.

What I quoted above is self-destructive behavior. So, it fits the definition of insanity. That behavior destroys both personal and national prosperity and hurts those it claims to help the most. Nothing about it fits any kind of definition of sane behavior.

 

[tieman55]

The main problem I have with your definition is that, your definition that means 90 percent of people are insane. That can't be.

But, without any doubt, 90 + percent of people are egocentric. In fact in all of human history there has only been one documented case of altruism. Vanity is a much better fit for the "seemingly" insane things that we do.

 

[Gary K]

The main problem I have with your definition is that, your definition that means 90 percent of people are insane. That can't be.

But, without any doubt, 90 + percent of people are egocentric. In fact in all of human history there has only been one documented case of altruism. Vanity is a much better fit for the "seemingly" insane things that we do.

Take a look around you and notice how many people deny reality. The democrat party is loaded with them. The rino republicans do exactly the same thing. That is a huge percentage of the population. Dishonesty, which, at its core, is nothing more than denying reality, has become endemic in our society. So, to say that most people are sane is denying what our society is really like these days. The corporate media is insane for when was the last time they told the American public the truth? They constantly misrepresent reality. So do almost all of our politicians. And how many people eat up whatever it is they are fed by these groups? A big percentage.

 

[tieman55]

Not much to disagree with in your post. I just can't say that a large portion of people, approaching everyone, that they are "insane" . . . Like the old saying "everyone is insane except for me and you LOL But I don't thing it would be inaccurate to say . .. "vanity is in everyone's DNA" . . .